Colorado Opens Post-Adoption Resource Center

More than 6,000 Colorado families who have adopted children through the child welfare system now have a resource network, called the Colorado Post-Adoption Resource Center.

The Center offers networking, education, lending libraries and even financial assistance to adoptive families. One family received a grant of $500 from the Center to help pay for a diagnostic medical exam (which was not covered by Medicaid) for their son, while another family received a grant of $500 to help send their teenage son to a two-week Outward Bound course in Utah.

Lt. Governor Jane Norton endorses the Center as part of her “Strengthening Families” initiative. In a press release, Lt. Governor Norton said, “The best hope for Colorado's  ‘waiting children’ is to ensure that adoptive families are supported in their efforts to provide safe and stable environments for their children. That support must extend well beyond the day of adoption. In providing special services, sharing information, building networks, and coordinating training for adoptive families, The Post-Adoption Resource Center will play a critical role in that process.”

The Center is funded by a five-year grant of $400,000 from the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS), plus $80,000 from The Adoption Exchange (a nonprofit organization) for the first year. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year beginning in October, the grant will increase to $500,000 from the CDHS and $100,000 from The Adoption Exchange.

Other states should take note of this innovative network, which was years in the making. The Colorado Post-Adoption Resource Center can  serve as a model for other states seeking to provide much-needed services to adoptive families.

For more about the Colorado Post-Adoption Resource Center, contact Pamela Avery at 303-807-1797, pavery@bozelljacobs.com.

For more about The Adoption Exchange, a nonprofit agency that has helped find families for more than 4,300 children with special needs, visit www.adoptex.org.

For more about the CDHS, which oversees Colorado's 64 county departments of social/human services, visit www.cdhs.state.co.us.